Falling in Love
by WildwingSuz
Summary: Just when did each of them fall in love with the other?


**Synopsis: ** Just when did each of them fall in love with the other?

**Spoilers: ** The whole show up to late Season 7.

**Author's Notes: **This was born of an idle thought—that's all. After watching the show again on DVD through the end of Season 7 I wondered when _did_ they each fall in love with the other? Here's my answer to that.

Thanks to Alia and Laurel for their fine betas; I always appreciate your time.

**Falling in Love**

By Suzanne L. Feld

Rated PG-13 for adult situations

"I feel like I've loved you forever."

"Mmn… me too, although I don't think we felt it _before_ we met."

She elbowed him none-too-gently in the side. "Listen, wiseass, you keep that up—"

"And what?" he rolled over and pulled her against his still-damp, naked body. "Or you'll say stop again?"

Changing her tactics Scully looped an arm around his neck and kissed him soundly, waiting until she felt his arm relax. Then she struck, rolling him onto his back and straddling his waist, pinning both arms above his head. "Ha! Not so badass now, are you?"

He grinned up at her, arching his back and bouncing her, eyes moving to the bare breasts only inches from his face. "So how long _have_ you been in love with me?"

"Hmph. Like I'd give you that kind of ammo." She shifted and tightened her legs around his body, knees digging into his ribs.

"Oof! Scully! If you're going to ride me like a horse at least get a saddle," Mulder yelped.

"I know you're going to try and toss me off and it isn't happening," she laughed down into his face. "I've got you this time, Mulder."

"Oh, if I really wanted to I could unseat you… but I don't," he leered up at her. "I'm happy to be your love slave for as long as you'd like."

"If you only knew… but seriously, Mulder, when did you realize you were in love with me?" she asked, letting go of his arms and sitting up, loosening her legs. She'd made her point and didn't want to give him any bruises. No, she had plenty more plans for this man before the day was done.

He reached up and gently cupped her breasts, almost as if he was testing their weight, then ran his hands down to settle gently on her tiny waist. "I think it really began when you ate that damn cricket, but I didn't admit it to myself until you went to Philly while I was in Memphis."

"Ed Jerse," Scully said with clear disgust, swinging her leg off and laying back next to him on the rumpled sheets. "Probably the biggest mistake of my life, bar none. Other than Padgett, perhaps."

Mulder went very still. He almost didn't want to know the answer to the question he was about to ask but couldn't resist asking it anyway. "Did you sleep with him?" he asked quietly, being deliberately non-confrontational.

Scully shook her head; she didn't mind him asking as her present lover although she had once snapped at him that it was none of his business when he'd asked as her partner. "No, but I might have had the circumstances been different. I know better than to make decisions like that when I'm drinking and I had been. Plus I was still very angry at you and might have done it as some type of stupid revenge while drunk."

He looked over at her, smiling just slightly. "Jealousy is a great motivator," he said. "That's what made me admit to myself how I was beginning to feel about you, speaking of Padgett."

Scully rolled over, sat up, and got the bottle of spring water from the bedside table, took a sip then passed it over to Mulder. She remained sitting up, stuffing a pillow behind her back to protect it from the spindles of the headboard, and crossed her legs at the ankle.

After taking a drink Mulder put the bottle on the end table next to him and scooted over to lay his head in her lap on her bare thighs, smiling up at her as he folded his hands over his stomach. He had to raise his knees, feet flat, so that his legs wouldn't hang off the side of the bed. This casual, comfortable nudity was still new to them but they were adjusting to it quickly.

She grinned back down at him, running a hand through his dark, spiky hair. "So when do you _think_ I fell in love with you?"

"At first sight," he promptly replied, still grinning insolently. "All women do. And some men as well though I don't swing that way. Too bad, too, because I'd have a lot more choices."

She gave his hair a little tug, eliciting a yelp. "Well, unfortunately or fortunately depending on your viewpoint, that didn't happen. Any idea when it did?"

"_I _told _you_, Scully, I shouldn't have to play guessing games," he said, reaching over and sliding one hand under her knees. "But, let me see. Seriously, I think it was around the time of the bank robbery we got caught in, remember that?"

"How could I forget it? But no, _far_ earlier than that."

He raised his eyebrows up at her. "Really? How much earlier?"

"I think it happened when you called me your one in five billion," she admitted, running one hand over his lightly furred chest, the skin beneath the hair still slightly damp from their earlier exertions. "Although I don't think I quite admitted it to myself until the case in Kansas, when that hefty blonde—remember, the one who kissed you--and I talked in the women's room. But I'd known it for some time by then even if I didn't want to see it."

"We did waste a hell of a lot of time," he said, smiling up at her. "Just think how long ago we could have been doing this." His free hand snaked around to give her ass a friendly squeeze where he could reach above the covers.

"I don't think either of us was ready for this--" she reached down and gave him a grope that made him groan—"until just recently. I think if we had slept together before we were both in the right mindset that it would have done nothing but rip us apart."

"I don't know about that," he said, rolling on his side and kissing her flat belly, wrapping both arms around her waist between her body and the pillows.

"When you called me your one in five billion it sent a jolt through me like an electric shock," she admitted, resting one hand on his hip with the other still stroking through his hair. "If I had to pick a moment I think that was the one. But I knew you didn't mean it that way."

"And what about when I said I loved you after my misadventure in the Bahamas?" he asked, lifting up on one arm and leaning over her, holding her eyes. "Why that response?"

"I—I think that scared me," she admitted, glancing down as she ran one hand along the arm bracing him on the other side of her hips. "I knew you were all drugged up and pretty much out of it… but the look on your face told me that you knew what you were saying, and that you meant it." She looked back at him, meeting his eyes, letting him see what she was feeling. "When you had your story time with Arthur Dales and gave me that batting lesson I knew I was sunk, but I wasn't ready to give in just yet."

"So… what _did_ make you give in, as you so romantically put it?" he grinned, reaching over to brush a thick lock of her fiery hair back behind her ear.

She gave him a close-mouthed, slightly twisted smile in return, unconsciously nodding slightly. "I think it started with that damn New Year's eve kiss," she said, but she was also thinking of a moment in his doorway when she'd had to walk away to stop herself from leaping physically into his arms. For some reason the sight of him with a baseball cap on over those bandages had yanked her heartstrings--hard. "Sometimes, after that, I would find myself looking at you wondering what in the hell I was waiting for. We both knew that we were waiting on me; you'd made it clear years ago that you wanted me as more than a partner."

"I think I caught a couple of those looks," he said, growing serious. "When… when we found Samantha's diary and you just sat there and listened while I read it… you weren't looking at me like I was delusional or out of my mind. You just looked sad for me."

"Yeah…" she said quietly.

For the moment no further words were needed and they both knew it; instead he leaned forward and kissed her, long and slow and sweet and deliberate. Scully wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him against her; the arm he was propped on collapsed and he fell across her legs, dragging her over with him. They ended up lying on their sides, bare bodies pressed tightly together with legs entwined, although his were hanging over the edge of the bed parallel to the headboard.

When the long kiss ended Scully gazed at his face, inches from her own, propped up on one arm. Now that she'd let go of all her inhibitions and worries she couldn't imagine not loving him, being with him, having him in any and every way she wanted him. They were the consummate professionals on the job but their off time was their own. "In the end, does it matter how we got here? As long as we are?"

"The discussion was on how long we've been in love with each other, not how we got here," he smiled at her.

"Isn't that the same thing?" she pointed out, running one hand up and down his muscular back. "If I hadn't finally admitted how much I loved you, how long I had, I wouldn't be here in this bed with you."

"I guess it's the same for me but even before I realized I was in love with you I wanted you," he admitted, twisting around so that his legs were on the bed and tugging her with him. She lay back and he stayed propped up on one arm over her, his other hand splayed on her bare, flat belly. "The first time I saw you, you were so young and so serious and businesslike it was almost amusing but I could see even then that you weren't someone to underestimate. Still, I was an equally young, horny guy and trust me, when you walked into my hotel room and dropped your robe it was all I could do not to seduce you."

"Oh? And what makes you think I was seducible then?" she said, arching one brow up at him. "I was seeing someone at the time, Mulder. I certainly wouldn't have slept with you."

"Really? I didn't know that. All these years and you still keep me guessing," he said, gazing down at her with surprise. Then his expression changed to a grin. "How could I not be in love with you? I never know what's going to happen from one day to the next around you."

"Me? Around_ me?! _ How about you, Mulder? God, being around you is like living in a calliope! Up down around sideways, I never know where you're going to lead me or what we'll be doing."

His grin grew. "And you love it."

"I love _you_, you idiot, not that," she snapped back, but he could see the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Then she glanced at the clock and twisted away from him. "We'd better get dressed, Mulder, they're going to be here in half an hour."

"What? Who?" He sat up, blinking owlishly at her. If it involved other people then it wasn't what he'd had in mind for this afternoon.

"We're watching my nephews today, remember? Charlie and Lisa are in town and want to take Mom out for brunch and you agreed to help me watch them. Days ago."

"Uh… Scully…"

"You promised. Not a chance of you getting out of it or no more naked pretzel."

"Ever?!"

"Ever."

"That's blackmail. And you'd never cut me off."

"Don't try me. And actually it's called being forced to keep a promise if you won't do it yourself."

"Aw, come on Scully, it's Saturday, we could be—"

"If you say watching slides in the office I am going to brain you with the lamp!"

"No, I was going to say taking a walk by Riverside Park but if it'll get me out of babysitting, sure, let's go to the office."

She glared at him with exasperation. "At the time you said you thought it would be fun."

"At the time I was trying to get into your pants."

"And so you did. And if you ever want to get into them again I suggest you haul that all-too-attractive ass of yours out of bed and into the shower."

"Only if you shower with me." He stood and stretched, enjoying her eyes on him.

"Only if you promise no funny stuff until after the boys leave," she agreed, herding him towards the bathroom and grabbing her terrycloth robe from the back of the bedroom door on the way but not putting it on.

"Only if you promise plenty of funny stuff after," he countered, preceding her into the smaller room.

"The things I do for you, I should get a medal—or sainthood," she said with a patently faked put-upon sigh, leaning past him to pull the shower curtain around the old claw-foot tub and then turn on the water.

"That goes both ways considering I'm going to be spending my afternoon with two boys under ten years old when I'd hoped to spend it in bed with you," Mulder said, also obviously pretending to be disgruntled but watching intently as she stretched up on her toes to hang her robe on the high hook on the back of the door.

She knew he wasn't really pissed off when he managed a couple of intimate caresses without being discouraged by her scolding as they stepped into the bathtub and pulled the curtain around them.

Even after the promises and arguing it was a close thing; Scully was just scrambling into her jeans and Mulder hunting for a shirt in his overnight bag when the doorbell rang. "Coming!" she called loudly out the bedroom door, fumbling with her zipper. "Jeez, Mulder, I can't trust you worth a damn," she fussed as she moved past him.

"_Moi?!_ You're the one who kept bending over until I couldn't help—"

"_Mulder!"_

He grinned, pulling a clean albeit wrinkled t-shirt out of his bag and tugging it down over his head as he followed her into the living room. She was right; no matter how they'd gotten here, when or where they'd fallen in love, how long it'd taken them to realize it, or where they went from here, it was here and now that mattered. And though he had to remind himself of that repeatedly over the next few hours, he never regretted any of it.

Especially the falling in love part.

_finis_


End file.
